The freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1886-18??, 1887-02-23
Mrs. Whites Influence.
CONTINUED From I'd Page.l

refers W OUI lOc- W oeCA Ooi ACio.
And our public Sunday evening
collections, as we'll as private char
tiles, receive many five dollar
note from that same sympathetic
pocket-book.
Now, strange to say, this woman,
without money and without posi-
tion,-as some Of US said behind
our fans,-had actually taken the
position of president of the county
and an unorganized county, too.
The first county convention was
appointed in one OF our largest
churches. How the consent of the
trustees was obtained remains a
mystery. Some of our young ladies,
who had always found our meet
ings prosy, were charmed into dec
Grating the church into a bower of
beauty, without one blossom in the
way. Thus to them it become "our
county convention" before the
opening session.
One of our sweet society young
ladies faithfully presided at the or
gan, another filed tiresome pauses
in the business routine with Won
derful soprano solos, while another
rendered temperance pathos and
humor and logic with all the skill
of a trained elocutionist. This
fair trio with the decoration COM
mittee) formed the organization of
our "Ys" of whom we are 80 proud.
The young gentlemen who wish to
stand we'll, and be popular, attend
all their socials and publics, and
hear what must whiten lives, as
the sun whitens linen, on every
such occasion.
Another surprise came to US at
the county convention.
A poor rich boy in our city, who
was deformed, poured all his tn wart.
ed hopes into the music of his
violin. Sad and morbid, he seem
ed to have no interest in the liv-
ing questions of the day, but there,
hid behind screen of flowers and
vines he electrified our audiences by
the magic of his music.
Lifted out of loneliness by his
interest in our many plans,h he gave
literally for our hospital in Chica
60, and distributed literature. The
convention placed our county or.
ganiz alton in good working order
and the w. c. 7. U. was never &C
popular. People almost forgot to
say, what are you women doing,
anyway" Cant you women re-
form without making go much ado
about it?" People began to say
We
But the climax of our astoni.h
meat and wonder was reached
when Mrs. White, SO over-taxed
before, was appointed state gu per
intenuent of a department, and
took it, actually took it! An i'm,
portant department, too.
Why, the state treasury only
allowed IS per year to each super
intendent of department. The
first set of circulars she must SEND
out would cost more than that
Somehow we never felt the meager
ness of our state treasury and the
scantiness of its appropriations, &c
keenly before.
We were bound to increase it an
other year. We raised our full
membership fee, for once, and for
warded it promptly, too. A print
er who also edited our Republican
newspaper, magnanimously print
ed the circulars for q very small
sum. The proprietors of our TWO
bookstores donated the envelopes
in which these circulars were sent
out to the hundreds of unions in
the state. A fashionable young
man, visiting in town, addressed
the entire basketful for Mrs. White
Thus it became ''our work" te
the two busy book sellers and the
idle young man, while the editor
remarked that there was not 8.
much difference of opinion on the
tep2 perance question, after all, anc
his wife came to our meetings.
But how would our superinten
dent meet the expense of postage